Frustrated Radical Pairs: Insights from EPR Spectroscopy

Abstract

Progress in frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) chemistry has revealed the importance of the main group elements in catalysis, opening new avenues in synthetic chemistry. Recently, new reactivities of frustrated Lewis pairs have been uncovered that disclose that certain combinations of Lewis acids and bases undergo single-electron transfer (SET) processes. Here an electron can be transferred from the Lewis basic donor to a Lewis acidic acceptor to generate a reactive frustrated radical pair (FRP). This minireview aims to showcase the recent advancements in this emerging field covering the synthesis and reactivities of frustrated radical pairs, with extensive highlights of the results from Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to explain the nature and stability of the different radical species observed.